Christian Bale

Biography

'Easy' Rider

After Louise, one of Bale's three sisters, gets cast in a musical on London's West End, the young chap is inspired to give acting a try. "I thought it was really good fun, and it looked easy," Bale tells TheNewYorkTimes of his start, which gives way to several commercial gigs and his London stage debut at age 10 in TheNerd, opposite Rowan Atkinson.

1987

December 09

'Sun' Rise

Following bit parts in TV movies, Bale beats out 4,000 hopefuls for the lead role in Steven Spielberg's EmpireoftheSun, playing a young British boy imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp. The performance earns Bale a best juvenile performance award from the National Board of Review, but the 13-year-old grows uncomfortable with his newfound fame. "I ran from it," he later tells the AP of his early success. "I said, 'I like the acting, but I really don't want anything to do with the rest of it.'"

1994

December 21

Return to Hollywood

Though he plays second fiddle to stars Winona Ryder and Claire Danes, Bale makes a memorable comeback with LittleWomen. "Handsome Christian Bale makes a dreamboat out of Laurie, the boy next door to the March family," writes TheNewYorkTimes of his performance. In 1998, he tackles another period piece with VelvetGoldmine, playing a newspaper reporter researching the disappearance of a '70s glam rock star.

2000

January 29

Wedded Bliss

Following a whirlwind romance, Bale secretly marries girlfriend Sandra "Sibi" Blazic, a former assistant to his LittleWomen costar Ryder. "I know that it truly would be impossible to do it without her," he later gushes of his wife. "[I owe] everything to her. She's such a good, strong woman."

April 14

All-American Antihero

After Leonardo DiCaprio drops out, Bale takes over the role of yuppie serial killer Patrick Bateman in AmericanPsycho. "It's really an analysis of the '80s, of men at their worst, of violence and of this sort of vacuousness," he says of the black comedy. "Bateman was never intended to be a real character. He says himself that he's an abstraction."

2005

March 27

Bale's Baby Joy

Bale and wife Blazic quietly welcome their daughter, whose name they do not reveal. "I've absolutely fallen into that cliché of a dad who could just happily talk about my daughter endlessly," he tells Esquire in 2010. "But it's not what I'm about in terms of being an actor. I don't want people to know about that."

June 15

Becoming Batman

Bale puts on the bat suit and 100 lbs. of muscle for director Christopher Nolan's gritty reboot, BatmanBegins. "As sleek as a panther, with cheekbones that look sharp enough to give even an ardent lover pause, Mr. Bale makes a superbly menacing avenger," raves TheNewYorkTimes. The film, which grosses over $200 million, spawns the 2008 sequel, TheDarkKnight, which rakes in $158.3 million to become the highest-grossing opening weekend of all time.

The Rant That Goes Viral

While filming TerminatorSalvation, a 4-minute long recording of Bale angrily reprimanding a crew member, in which he drops the F-word 36 times, leaks onto the Web. "I was out of order, beyond belief," he later says of the on-set incident. "I acted like a punk. I regret that...It is inexcusable."